Text and History of the Bible

The Earliest New Testament Manuscripts

It should come as no surprise that we have far fewer older manuscripts of the New Testament than we have more recent ones. This is true for at least three reasons.

The earliest manuscripts were written at a time when church organization was still somewhat fluid and Christianity was a suspect and, in some locations, an illegal religion. At this early period, copies would have been commissioned by either individual congregations or wealthy individuals, not a more universal church.

Also, the earliest manuscripts we have are written on papyrus, a cheaper and more readily available material than vellum or parchment. Unfortunately, papyrus is not as durable, so it is less likely to survive.

Finally, at the time these early papyrus manuscripts were written, there was no final canon, or authoritative listing of what books should or should not be included in what we have come to call the New Testament. Different localities would have had access to different books, but few churches would have had them all.

In order to present this information as simply as possible, I am listing below some of the earliest manuscripts we have of the New Testament books. Scholars have given them the designation “p” and a number. The “p” indicates that the manuscript is written on papyrus. Please understand that much more could be said; however, I recognize that most people would have no interest in a more detailed discussion, at least at this time. Here then are some of the most ancient existing manuscripts of the New Testament.

Most Recent Discovery—In an earlier post, I talked about Daniel Wallace’s claim that additional manuscripts have been discovered, dating from the second century and even a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that actually goes back to the first century. I am excited about that and want to learn more about it. At the same time, all we have now is the claim itself. According to Dr. Wallace, the manuscripts are being evaluated, and more information will be revealed when available. Since these manuscripts have not yet been authenticated, we cannot at this time consider them. I will be thrilled if the claims prove to be true, but we must be honest and admit that, for the present, they cannot enter into our discussion.

P52—I wrote an earlier post, dealing specifically with this manuscript, because it is the earliest one we have. It is a small scrap that includes portions of John 18.31-33 on the front and John 18.37-38 on the reverse. It is generally dated to no later than AD 150, although some aspects of the writing would indicate that it may date from AD 117-138.

P64—This has turned out to be a quite controversial manuscript. Again, it is only a small fragment, containing Matthew 26.23 and Matthew 26.31. It is known as the Magdalen Papyrus because it is housed at Magdalen College (Nothing to do with Mary Magdalene. Sorry DaVinci Code fans). The controversy came because an expert in papyrology (someone who examines papyri), named Carsten Peter Thiede claimed that the manuscript dates from AD 70. I have read the book he wrote. While his arguments are intriguing, I have to admit I was not convinced. Unless some other evidence arises, I am sticking with the traditional date of AD 150-200 which still makes it an extremely early manuscript.

P46—This is the earliest manuscript we have of the letters of Paul and dates from @ AD 200. The order of the letters in the manuscript is interesting. They appear to have been written from the longest letter to the shortest, and the manuscript includes Hebrews which follows Romans. Part of the manuscript is missing, but it apparently did not include the Pastorals (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), which perhaps is significant when dealing with the authorship of those books.

P66—Also dating from @ AD 200, this manuscript contains the Gospel of John.

P75—This is the earliest manuscript we have of the Gospel of Luke, and it also contains portions of the Gospel of John. It dates from the early 200s AD. There are those who claim that the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus only comes from after the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The fictional scholar Leigh Teabing makes much of this in The DaVinci Code. This manuscript written at least 100 years before the Council of Nicaea refutes that view, because it begins “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God” (John 1.1 NAS Updated Edition), just as our bibles read today. I am showing below the top portion of that very page from this manuscript. If you can read the ancient Greek uncial letters, you will see that the Greek reads exactly the same as our current bibles.

p75 @ AD 200

In the next post, I want to talk about the earliest essentially complete copies of the New Testament we possess. There is something very intriguing about that, and it relates to this manuscript. I am simply going to tease you with that, hoping it will make you want to read my next post.

Obviously, these few manuscripts cannot be used to prove that the original text has been preserved, because they are fragmentary and do not contain the entire New Testament. What they do reveal is that as far back as we can go the text is pretty much what we have today. Some scholars assert that over the centuries the text has been so corrupted that we have no way of knowing what the originals said. Based on these few manuscripts that are preserved, that viewpoint contains more assumption than fact. Yes, there are many variations in the text, and I want to discuss them in some detail at a later time; however, the evidence of the earliest manuscripts is that there have been no drastic changes to the text of the books of the New Testament from what was originally written. The burden of proof is I believe on the skeptics, because the manuscript evidence does not back up the view that the text has been dramatically altered.